Johnson, William Mindred

WILLIAM MINDRED JOHNSON is one of
the most prominent lawyers of Bergen County, N. J., and since
1895 has represented that county in the State Senate. He comes
from distinguished families, his father being Hon. Whitfield
Schaeffer Johnson, Secretary of State of New Jersey from 1861
to 1866, and his mother Ellen, daughter of Enoch Green, granddaughter
of John Green, and sister of Hon. Henry Green, Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. His paternal grandparents
were John Jolinson and Maria C. Schaeffer. His paternal great-grandfather
was Captain Henry Johnson, a Quartermaster in the Continental
Army. Hon. Whitfield Schaeffer Johnson, father of the subject
of this article, was eminent in the State of New Jersey, alike
as a leading lawyer, a leader of the Republican party, and as
a public man. He was born in Newton, Sussex County, November
14, 1866, read law in Newark with Chief Justice Joseph C. Hornblower,
and came to the New Jersey bar in 1828. For many years he was
a successful lawyer in Newton, and for some time served as Prosecutor
of the Please of Sussex County. In 1861 he was appointed Secretary
of State by Governor Olden and served until 1866, and in 1867
he was made register in bankruptcy. He died in Trenton on the
24th of December, 1874; his wife's death occurred there September
16, 1894.

William M. Johnson was born in Newton,
Sussex County, N. J., December 2, 1847, and received his preparatory
education at the Newton Collegiate Institute and the State Model
School at Trenton. He was graduated from Princeton College with
honor, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1867. Subsequently,
he also received the degree of Master of Arts from the same institution.
Mr. Johnson read law in Trenton with the late Hon. Edward W.
Scudder until the latter's appointment to the bench, and afterward
in the same city with Garret D. W. Vroom, now and for several
years State Law Reporter, and was admitted to the bar of New
Jersey at Trenton in June, 1870, as an attorney, and in June,
1873, as a counselor. As a member of the firm of Klugman &
Johnson he successfully practiced his profession in Trenton from
1870 to December, 1874, when he moved to Hackensack, Bergen County,
where he has since resided, becoming one of the recognized leaders
of the Bergen County bar. In connection with an extensive legal
business, and as a progressive, public spirited, and liberal-minded
citizen, he has achieved a wide reputation and an honorable standing
throughout the State. He is one of the most conspicuous figures
in the public and political life of his section. He has appeared
in a large number of very important cases, and is universally
regarded as one of the ablest and most talented lawyers of the
county, eminent in the profession, and remarkably successful
as an advocate and counselor. His sound judgment, his integrity,
his broad legal attainments, and his fine sense of honor as a
man have won for him the confidence of not only his clients,
but of the entire community, in an unusual degree.

He is also one of the influential
leaders of the Republican party in the State, having served on
the Republican State Committee in 1884, and being a delegate
to the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1888. In
the autumn of 1895 he was nominated and elected State Senator
from Bergen County for a term of three years, and so ably and
satisfactorily did he discharge the duties of that office that
in 1898 he was re-elected for a second term of three years. He
has been active in proposing and shaping legislation in the interest
of the taxpayers of both the State and his district, and has
served as Chairman of the Committees on Appropriations, State
Library, and the Judiciary and as a member of the Committees
on Boroughs and Townships and State Hospitals. In 1898 and 1899
he was the leader of his party on the floor of the Senate. He
was the first Republican senator ever elected in Bergen County,
and received 6,287 votes in 1895 and 6,999 in 1898; these facts
speak volumes for the popularity, the confidence, and the esteem
in which he is held by his fellow citizens, while his re-election
by an increased vote attests the satisfaction he has rendered
in this important trust. In 1900 he was elected President of
the New jersey Senate and became Acting Governor during the absence
of Governor Voorhees in Europe in May, 1900, and in August of
the same year he was appointed by President McKinley First Assistant
Postmaster-General of the Untied States, vice Perry S.
Heath resigned.

Senator Johnson has also been prominent
in the local affairs and public interests of Hackensack, where
he has so long resided. He has held various town offices, has
served on the Hackensack Board of Education, and has taken for
many years a deep interest in the development of the public school
system. "The Johnson Public Library," costing nearly
$50,000, was erected in 1900 by Mr. Johnson, at his own expense,
and presented by him to the Town of Hackensack. Outside of the
lines of his profession he has been eminently successful in the
management of a number of business interests. He was one of the
original organizers and founders of the Hackensack Bank, and
has served upon its directorate continuously from its organization
to the present time. He is also President of the Hackensack Trust
Company. He is likewise a prominent member and one of the officers
of the Second Reformed Church of Hackensack, while he is also
a member of the Iritani Field Club, the North Jersey Country
Club, the Hamilton Club, the Lawyers' Club, and the Princeton
Club of New York. In every capacity and relation in life Senator
Johnson has exhibited consummate ability, a broad and liberal
knowledge, and a commendable public spirit and enterprise. Privately
he is possessed of scholarly attainments, and is universally
respected for those virtues which make up the loyal friend and
honest man.

He was married October 22, 1872,
to Maria E., daughter of William White, of Trenton, N. J. Their
eldest son, Walter Whitfield Johnson, died March 16, 1891, aged
sixteen. The other two, who are living, are George White Johnson
and William Kempton Johnson.